In order to realize high integration and high speed acceleration of an integrated circuit such as an ULSI or the like used in a computer, the fining of a design rule for a semiconductor device has been advancing year after year. With its fining, there have been increasing cases where more minute surface defects adversely affect the performance of the semiconductor device. It is becoming more important to manage nano-order defects which have not been treated heretofore as problems.
A semiconductor substrate such as a silicon wafer, and other substrates have recently been required to have a surface of higher quality. A consideration of a polishing composition capable of meeting such a request has been performed in various ways. A technology of using a low-viscosity water-soluble polymer compound as a semiconductor wetting agent to thereby make it easy to remove by filtration, foreign substances or the like which may lead to a factor of increasing the number of minute particles (Light Point Defect; LPD) on a semiconductor substrate after polishing has been described in, for example, Patent Literature 1. Also, a technology of reducing defects by a rinsing composition containing a water-soluble polymer such as water-soluble polysaccharide or the like has been described in Patent Literature 2. Further, a technology of controlling the number of abrasives in polishing liquid to be within a prescribed range to thereby obtain a high-quality surface with less defects has been described in Patent Literature 3. There was however a case where even such technologies were not capable of sufficiently coping with a recent request level related to surface quality after polishing.